Measuring progress in the construction sector

Last week the European Economic and Social Committee announced that its Single Market Observatory is conducting a survey on the implementation of the Services Directive in the construction sector. The results of this survey are to be made public in April this year. The Services Directive is relatively new (from 2006) and it will be interesting to see what issues are there with its application in practice and whether it changed the relations between services providers and its recipients in the construction sector.

Building a house? Online disclosure on construction products' performance

I have written my PhD about various fall-traps that consumers may stumble into while having someone construct their house. Notwithstanding that it is often a long, costly and technologically complicated process, consumers usually have to deal with various service providers who may not all be quite as reliable as necessary. Additionally, it is hard for consumers to overview the project and materials used, since their usability and effectiveness may not be immediately clear, upon a glance. It was then interesting to see that the European Commission decided to take certain legal measures to protect European consumers with regard to potentially defective, inferior construction products. The Commission proposes namely that manufacturers of construction products upload digital 'declarations of performance' on their websites, disclosing essential characteristics (e.g., fire resistance, mechanical strength, energy efficiency) of every product they sell. At the moment instead of having these documents publicly available, clients need to individually request them, which makes making comparisons between products more difficult. (Online information about construction products to save time and money) These changes should supplement the recently implemented Construction Products Regulation (in force as of 1 July 2013), which aims at providing accurate information on the performance of construction products by harmonising the language used by construction manufacturers.

Building goes sustainable

Since the start of the economic crisis, the housing market has been less-than-flourishing in many Member States. 

In order to sustain recovery while promoting innovation (and energy saving!), the Commission has proposed an action plan  to stimulate investment in low energy building. 

In a couple of years, if the plan is adopted, it should become easier and cheaper to build the house of your dreams- or renew it with a sustainability agenda, even if you do not live in one of the countries (see table) which are already active in the sector. 

The Commission envisages a package including monetary incentives, awareness-raising and harmonisation of rules aiming at unifying the market and  fostering competition. A more sustainable housing market is possible, stay tuned for future developments!